


Cranberry Sauce (McDanno's Twins // Season 1, Episode 2)

by OTP_Obsessed



Series: Hawaii Five-O: 'At-Home' Mini-Series (McDanno's Twins) [2]
Category: Hawaii (TV), Hawaii Five-0 (2010), McDanno - Fandom
Genre: 10 types of kisses, Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Forehead Kisses, Happy little family, Holidays, Humor, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Bad At Tagging, Idiots in Love, Love, M/M, Morning Kisses, One Big Happy Family, Romance, Same-Sex Marriage, Schmoop, Short, Short One Shot, Sweet, THIS IS TOO CUTE, Twins, mcdanno, they notice too much about each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:07:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25418956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OTP_Obsessed/pseuds/OTP_Obsessed
Summary: It's their first Thanksgiving as a family but Danny has still been sporting a bogus holiday spirit. So, Steve sends him to the store for cranberry sauce and Danny winds up stuck in traffic for over two hours. But, what Danny doesn't know is that Steve has a special surprise waiting for him at home--one that he's been conjuring up for the last two weeks.(Another addition to my McDanno Twin AU "At-Home" Series. Enjoy.)
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Series: Hawaii Five-O: 'At-Home' Mini-Series (McDanno's Twins) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1841155
Comments: 2
Kudos: 52





	Cranberry Sauce (McDanno's Twins // Season 1, Episode 2)

**Author's Note:**

> "PART 3" is currently in the works (and will chronologically follow this one)! It should be posted some time this week, or next! 
> 
> (NOTE: The series will be reordered/re-organized after Part 3 has been posted.)

HOOOONNNKKK!!! 

Danny laid on his car horn until his ears rang. After a good long minute, he pulled his hand back, bringing silence to the world around him, and threw his hands up in defeat. “Come on!” he shouted, gesturing angrily at the stationary traffic in front of him. “Why are we stopped! It’s two in the afternoon, why aren’t you all home?! This is…ridiculous.” He slammed his hands against the wheel and ran his hands over his face, sighing deeply. Then, he rested his arm against the door and laid his head on his hand, looking up to the photo of him, Steve and the twins at the beach, taped to the sun visor. He stared into Picture-Steve’s eyes and scowled at him for a moment. Then, he shook his head and, sternly, scolded him, “How did you forget cranberry sauce?” Picture-Steve smiled back at him. “No, no, don’t give me that look,” Danny said, shaking his head, “One, one day. That’s all the time that we—no, correction not we, you—that you had to do the holiday shopping this week and, yet, you forget the one thing, the one thing on that list that you know, you know, our friends are going to ask for. And, somehow, you don’t know you’ve forgotten it until the holiday gets here and instead of going out to the store to get it yourself, since it was your mistake, you send me out to get it. But, unlike it being a ‘quick run to the store and back’ like you claim, I am instead stuck in this mess because everyone on this rock somehow also forgot cranberry sauce on this exact day. And now, instead of being home with my family and friends for the holiday, I’m alone in my car, stuck in the middle of Luanillio Street!” Picture-Steve just smiled back at him. Danny nodded his head, let out a soft, shameful sigh and said, “Always an excuse with you, isn’t there?” He rolled his eyes at Picture-Steve, then, growled and laid on his horn again. “Come on! Move! Some of us want to get home!” he shouted over the monotone shriek echoing around him.

The longer the horn blasted, the angrier Danny became; an unfortunate effect the holidays had always had on him. Even though spending time with his Five-O Ohana every year always gave him a warm feeling inside, Danny still had a hard time waking up with a smile around the holidays. And traffic like this made him despise them even more. He could never understand how people became so worked up over the holidays; especially a holiday that was supposed to be about being thankful for what’s already in your life. If people were already thankful for what was in their life, why was he growing old in the driver’s seat of his Camaro?

Because of Steve. As usual. 

And, as traffic started to move, slowly, he lightened his abhorrence for his husband. However, when all the cars in front of him passed through the light, then it flashed yellow to red just as he was pulling up to the sensor line, Danny roared out in frustration, slamming his fists against the wheel, and felt all his rage towards the holiday—and his hatred towards Steve—return. 

All because of cranberry sauce.  
Little did he actually know, this whole thing was all part of Steve’s plan.

You see, for the last two weeks, Steve has been planning the ‘prefect Thanksgiving’ for Danny. He’s known about Danny’s aversion towards the holidays since they spent their very first one together. Even though Danny tried to match the level of excitement the other guests shared, Steve was able to read right through his ruse and knew Danny was only being “happy” because everyone else was. And, this year, with two, red-headed three-year-old's, in particular, to be thankful for, Steve was determined to help Danny find his holiday spirit. But he knew Bailey and Colton’s presence wouldn’t be enough because they were around every day. He needed to find another way instead.

Which is why he sent Danny on a bogus run for cranberry sauce. That’s right, they weren’t out of cranberry sauce; in fact, Jerry was going to bring it. But Steve needed a ploy to get Danny out of the house so he could ready the house for the real surprise: A William’s Family Reunion. For the last two weeks, Steve had been making preparations for Danny’s family to fly in from New Jersey and spend Thanksgiving with them. And, while it had almost been impossible to keep such a massive secret from his now-24/7 partner, Steve was able to outlast the last two weeks with the help of his Five-O Ohana. 

And, once Steve had received Danny’s confirmation message…

“TWENTY MINUTES IN TRAFFIC FOR CRANBERRY SAUCE? YOU OWE ME ONE!”

…he called Clara William’s room at the Hilton—where he knew she’d checked into last night—to let her know it was safe to come over. “There’s a car downstairs and it’s ready when you all are, Mrs. William’s,” Steve informed, playfully, when he heard Clara answer the phone. 

“Stevie,” Clara coddled, “you’ve been dating my son for five years, married to him for the last two, and now you’re raising my new grandbabies together. When are you going to start calling me ‘mom?’” 

Steve chuckled, softly. “The coast is clear…Mom,” he smiled, rolling his eyes. 

“That’s better,” Clara said, impishly. “Now, are you sure Daniel will not be back to the house before we all get there? I want this to be a complete surprise.” 

Bailey entered the room and smiled up at Steve. Steve smiled back at her, brightly, and teased her with funny faces as he listened to Clara. Then, Bailey raised her arms in the air, gesturing for Steve. “Trust me,” Steve assured Clara, taking Bailey in his arms. “I sent him to a store across town. And, with the traffic on Thanksgiving, it should be, at least an hour before he even makes it there. Then, he’s got to come back. If we’re going to do this, now’s the perfect time.” Steve bounced in place, rubbing Bailey’s back. Then, a massive smile spread across his face, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head against his shoulder. 

“Steven, I could never even get him to walk down the street for milk, so I don’t know how you managed to convince him to drive half-way across town for cranberry sauce. On Thanksgiving, no less. But I’m not going to pry,” Clara replied, contently. “We’ll see you soon.” 

“See you soon,” Steve said, hanging up the phone. He threw the phone on the counter, then, met Bailey’s sleepy eyes and gazed at her, lovingly. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and whispered, with his lips still against her skin, “We’ll make him smile for real this year, won't we, baby?” Bailey nodded and cuddled deeper against Steve’s chest. Steve rocked in place, rubbing Bailey’s back while he locked a tender gaze on Colton, in the other room, playing in a pile of toys.

**********  
After fighting to find a place to park for the next ten minutes, Danny finally made his way into the store. From the parking lot over the threshold of the sliding doors, a sudden calm came over him. Now that he had survived all that chaos from the outside world, he could get what he came for, check out, and be back to his family in no time. The thought of his Five-O Ohana, and Steve and the Twins, sitting around the table laughing and having a good time gave Danny a sense of serenity, as made his way to the grocery department. 

Searching through the aisles, Danny spotted a family at the end of one of the lanes. It was a dad and his two kids—a 15-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son—arguing over something that had happened in a previous aisle. Danny stopped at the opposite end of the lane and watched them, nonchalantly, out of the corner of his eye, as they continued to scream at each other over insignificant things. When the mom of the group returned, from picking up an item in a nearby aisle, she hurled her handful of items into the back of their shopping cart, knelt down to the boy’s level, grabbed him by the biceps, hard enough that Danny had wished he hadn’t forgotten his badge at home. “Your attitude is getting on my nerves!” she scolded, thinking no one else could hear her. “You are going to stop it now or I will see to it we never take you anywhere again! Do you hear me?!” The little boy held back tears, nodding that he had heard her. The mother stood back up and then, turned to the daughter and grabbed her biceps, gentler this time, and smiled, almost apologetically. “Did you find the one you wanted, Baby?” she asked, lovingly. The daughter nodded and gave her mother a thankful smile, as if she had just been rescued from danger.

Danny stepped aside, hiding behind a rack of chips, when the strange family started to make their way towards him. As they came to the end of the aisle and turned past him, Danny overheard the mother say to the father, “Don’t give me lip, he’s your son, not mine” before shoving the lollygagging boy in front of her. 

When the family disappeared down another aisle, Danny’s heart broke wondering how anyone could treat a child that way—theirs or not. He had two that were his own blood, which he loved more than anything in the world, and now two that weren’t his own blood but that he loved just as they were. It didn’t matter who the child’s DNA came from, you’re supposed to show them love and compassion no matter what. A moment later, the mother’s scolding voice started up again, resonating from the other aisle. Danny closed his eyes, for a long while, listening as the mother went off on her stepson, but praised her daughter. He hated that he couldn’t step in and save the boy with his credentials. But he knew that Steve would also understand and have his back. However, when Danny went to head down the aisle to confront the mother’s behavior, he stopped and smiled, overhearing the father stand up to her, saying, “Either you quit knocking around my boy like that, for no reason, or we’re going to have some serious problems, Ellen!” 

‘Yeah, Ellen,’ Danny thought to himself, smiling, proudly, as the mother backed off from the young boy’s face. The father took his son and pulled him close, keeping a protective hand on his shoulder as the parents participated in a silent stand-off in the middle of Aisle 3. But, unfortunately, as much as Danny wanted to see how this battle ended, the aisle he needed was two more down. Besides, he had his own family to get back home to and didn’t want to have to ruin their holiday by taking this case and not bringing home the cranberry sauce. Danny traveled down to Aisle 5 and searched the shelves for his item. But, when he got to where the cranberry sauce was supposed to be, the shelves had been picked clean; not a single can in sight. Danny let out a furious sigh and threw his hands up in defeat, “Seriously?! How?!” He huffed around in a circle until he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He stopped to read the message: 

WHAT’S TAKING SO LONG? THE GANGS ALL HERE. BUT THEY WONT EAT WITHOUT THEIR SAUCE, DANNY! I’LL TRY TO HOLD THEM OFF. HURRY BACK! <3

For a good two minutes, Danny scowled at the heart emoticon. Then, clenching his jaw and fists, he growled under his breath, “Steven!” 

**********

About an hour later, Danny arrived back home. He pulled up to the house and parked behind the fleet of familiar cars that now lined his driveway. As he walked up to the house, passing by the Five-O convoy, furious and cranberry sauce-less, he tried to compose himself by figuring out who was inside. 

Kono, Adam and Chin had each come separately but, by the order of cars, it was clear Kono and Adam had been first to arrive. The Grover Family had fallen in third and the two backpacks in his backseat told Danny that he had fulfilled the favor of picking up Charlie and Grace from Rachel’s for him—which he would reimburse later. For now, the idea of Grace and Charlie’s presence helped ease a bit of Danny’s rage as he continued up the path to the house, where he saw that Kamekona had brought the whole family and Jerry’s scooter was tucked back, hidden behind some shrubs—typical Jerry. The first car in the fleet, of course, was Steve’s truck, which Danny stopped to peer into before he reached the house. Spotting the Twin’s car seats in the back of Steve’s truck, gave Danny a small enough high that he was able to conjure up a temporary smile, to mask the frustrations this holiday had bought to him. 

When he reached the front step, Danny took a deep breath, then, opened the door and stepped inside. He hadn’t realized how silent the house was until he had been in the house for a few seconds. When he finally came to his senses, he wrinkled his face, curiously. “Hello?” he called out, scoping the room with his eyes. As he stepped further into the house, the smell of the Thanksgiving feast was intoxicating and made his stomach furious he had skipped breakfast. He moved through the house, cautiously, wondering how the party of cars outside could explain for the lack of—everything—inside the house. That was, until he spotted the party had gathered outside on the fenced-in Lanai. Danny went to the back door and slid it open to greet his friends. “Hey guys. I thought you couldn’t start eating without the cranberry sauce,” he joked, playfully. 

Until he noticed the William’s family, gathered down by the shoreline. When Five-O all caught Danny’s reaction, they all shared in a sly smile, freeing Steve from their crowd. Steve made his way over to Danny and stood in front of him, crossing his arms. “Surprise,” he smirked, smugly.

Danny gestured to his extended family, down by the water, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. “How—why did you?” 

“Because I love seeing you smile,” Steve shrugged. Danny shook his head and showed Steve a wide smile. Steve nodded and chuckled, softly, “Yeah, like that.” He turned and put his hand on Danny’s lower back, pulling Danny to his side. Danny folded into his partner, wrapping his arms around Steve’s waist. As the pair admired the beauty of their massive, not-so-perfect-Ohana, united in absolute togetherness, around them, Steve rested his chin on Danny’s head and smiled. “I know that holidays aren’t your favorite thing because you feel they’re about money and meaningless objects,” he said, meeting Danny’s eyes. “But I wanted to show you that there’s so much more to them than that and to help you find your holiday spirit.” 

“It’s just hard to have holiday spirit when everyone on this rock—in the world for that matter—has forgotten the real reason we even have these holidays,” Danny frowned, remembering his run-in with the strange family at the grocery store. “It’s hard to be in the spirit of things when everyone around you has turned into selfish, materialistic brutes.” 

“Not everyone,” Steve reminded, gently, gesturing to Clara, Grace, Charlie and the Twins, playing together in the ocean. 

Danny looked up to Steve, then, following the gesture, out to his family down at the shoreline. The holiday Humbug in his heart vanished, as he witnessed Gracie giving Colton a piggy-back through the waves, and Charlie building a sandcastle with Bailey and Clara. Steve wrapped his arms around Danny’s neck, locking his fingers together behind Danny’s head, and smiled, contently, knowing that this new grin on Danny’s face was genuine. After a moment, Danny turned back to Steve with doting eyes and, just before Steve could speak, ambushed his husband with a forceful kiss to his waiting lips. After a tender moment passed, and their lips finally parted, Danny bit his bottom lip. “Thank you,” he whispered, softly. 

“For you? Anything,” Steve twinkled. Danny turned and fell back against Steve. Steve wrapped his arms around Danny, squeezing him like a Koala, resting his right cheek on Danny’s head, to look towards the ocean. Danny relaxed into Steve’s embrace, linked his arms around Steve’s forearms, and, also, turned his gaze towards the ocean. And, for a long while, the pair remained affixed in each other’s arms, swaying, slowly, to the rhythm of the waves, as they absorbed the breath-taking serenity around them; both wondering how on Earth they had come to gain so much love. 

~*~

**Author's Note:**

> I see so many possibilities for this series that EVEN I have no idea where it's going to end...if it ever ends. So glad you've all decided to take this journey with me! And, I cannot wait to see where this beautiful family ends up! Stay tuned for many, many, MANY more! Trust me, when I say: "There's plenty more where this came from." <3


End file.
